Technomindfulness: The Art of Silence (Medium)

For the past several weeks I have been conducting an experiment on the relationship between myself and my phone. It is not a new device or anything super fancy. (It’s an iPhone 8 I believe). Each day, I prep my phone to manage how I want it to interrupt my day. I do this by adjusting my notification settings. You see, notifications are simply that: Interruptions.

Picture this: You are sitting with a friend at coffee or lunch when their wrist watch buzzes. They are getting a phone call. When I was a child, this kind of scenario was the stuff of science fiction. Now it is an everyday annoyance. “I don’t need to respond to that now,” your colleague will say while her wrist vibrates. She taps the face of the watch but narrowly misses the dismiss button only to end up mashing the face of the watch repeatedly. We allow technology to interrupt our personal space.